Ukraine needs to quickly attract foreigners to rebuild economy – expert’s opinion
The relevant statement was made by Andrii Haidutskyi, an economist and migration policy expert, in an interview with Ukrinform.
“If Ukraine does not solve the issue of attracting people with money (both foreigners and Ukrainians), the outflow [of citizens – Ed.] will continue, because other countries have dozens of programmes to attract Ukrainians and their savings. The working solution is a quick work on attracting foreigners, and long and monotonous work on returning Ukrainians,” Haidutskyi told.
According to the expert, if these issues are not addressed at the national level, the number of workers, taxpayers and consumers in the country will continue to decrease.
“As a result, businesses will close, relocate abroad, and also move workforce to neighboring countries with favorable conditions. Reduced tax payments will lead to a logical increase in tax rates, as it is necessary to somehow maintain the country, army and pensioners,” Haidutskyi explained.
In his words, to prevent another rise in tax rates, it is necessary to work on increasing the number of taxpayers. For this purpose, the country should significantly expand the number of consumers of goods and services, primarily by attracting foreigners.
“Ukraine needs to launch mirror-like programmes [similar to European ones – Ed.] to attract foreigners who do not meet the criteria for developed countries but want to leave their homeland,” the expert said.
In his opinion, for Ukrainians to live more prosperously after the war, the country should involve foreign workers in hard jobs. In this regard, Ukraine may follow the example of the United Arab Emirates, where some economic sectors are almost solely covered by foreign employees.
“Tax payments from foreigners should generate funds for the development of Ukrainian society, which will ensure a decent life for the indigenous population of Ukraine. This is how it works in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and other countries, which realized long ago that it is very difficult to make your homeland successful and competitive with indigenous population only,” Haidutskyi stressed.
The analyst mentioned that Ukraine could attract foreigners with freedom of speech and democracy, whose fundamentals are missing in poorer Asian countries, such as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Additionally, the country may be interesting due to its proximity to the open and developed market of the EU and, thus, its transit potential should be used.
“Ukraine can be interesting as a transit country, where you can arrive, gain some experience and move on. The UAE is actually a transit country: 90% of foreigners who work there will never stay to live there, because it is expensive, it is impossible to obtain citizenship, and there are very high requirements for those who want to settle,” Haidutskyi added.
A reminder that, in October 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine endorsed the Demographic Development Strategy until 2040, which had been developed by the Ukrainian Social Policy Ministry.